Future Shock: Climate, Cities, and the Power of Imagination — a keynote presentation by Vanessa Keith
Sponsored by Jefferson's Creativity Core Curriculum
Event Details:
Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Time: 5-6pm
Location: Kanbar Performance Space in the Kanbar Campus Center, 4201 Henry Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19144 (Get Directions)
Future Shock: Climate, Cities, and the Power of Imagination
Keynote description
What will the world look like in the next century? Is climate optimism even possible? Architect and visionary urban designer Vanessa Keith gives a resounding yes and shows how imagination and innovation can reinvent our collective future for the better. Her keynote sparks curiosity and invites the audience to imagine bold solutions to our biggest global challenges and to become the innovators who build them.
About the speaker
VANESSA KEITH is a registered architect and the Founder and Principal of Studioteka, a New York-based award-winning design firm she founded in 2003. She is a seasoned and well-respected professor with twenty years' experience teaching design at Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, CCNY, and Pratt Institute. A published author and frequent speaker, Vanessa is especially interested in visionary solutions to the issues faced by cities as they adapt to climate change. She is also keenly focused on sustainability and innovative technical and engineering solutions to environmental problems. Studioteka's work is multifaceted and encompasses architecture and interior design, economic development, planning, and feasibility studies, and research and development in emerging tech, gaming for social good, and virtual reality. Vanessa's background in sustainable economic development, her visionary leadership, writing, teaching, public speaking, research, and tireless search for practical and creative solutions to environmental problems are integral to all the firm's work.
Studioteka's architecture work has been featured in prestigious design publications including Frame, Hinge, Surface Asia, Urban Omnibus, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Metropolis, Design Bureau and Mark Magazine, as well as USA Today and print and media interviews. Her futuristic urban design work and innovative ideas have been featured in a Netflix documentary, The Future of Skyscrapers and the DC Environmental Film Festival and were honored by a 2023 Sundance Stars Collective Imagination Award. Along with her team at Tekamundi, she is currently developing an open-world game designed to inform and inspire engagement in the search for solutions to the climate crisis. This project draws from her groundbreaking book, 2100: A Dystopian Utopia—The City After Climate Change, which envisions 14 cities around the world in the year 2100 that are successfully employing emerging technologies and innovative techniques to move beyond the climate crisis. Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religion (eastern religion and philosophy) from Columbia University, a Master of International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia.University, and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Studioteka Design is certified as an MWBE by the New York/New Jersey Minority Supplier Development Council.
About the Creativity Core Curriculum's 2025-26 Theme: Creativity for Utopian Futures:
Now is the time to dream ambitiously and collaborate to imagine futures worth striving for. Human creativity is key to envisioning just, sustainable, and inspiring possibilities for the benefit of generations to come. This year's theme, "Creativity for Utopian Futures" examines how transformative thinking can spark new approaches to global challenges that impact us all.
Questions about this event may be directed to Maribeth Kradel-Weitzel: maribeth.kradel-weitzel@jefferson.edu